Sunday News Breakdown: Neoliberal coups, Nickel, and the opportunities for Muslim seizure of Israel

That's how I like going. Okay. So I do have a few stories to talk about today, actually. Quite a few. Many too many, actually.

This is one of hardest parts about actually this doing this this program is that trying to narrow down all of the news stories there's so many. There's so many things happening and so many things that deserve to be discussed. But I wanted to talk about a piece that was shared in the middle nation discussion group the other day, which is not not an article actually, but a video from Australian Sky News, is obviously a very right wing news slash propaganda outlet. I'm not gonna actually go over the the whole transcript, but I'll I'll I'll put the link in the description for the for the video if you wanna watch it. It's a story about the new president of Argentina, Javier Mille.

It's not really about him so much as it as as it is a marketing PR spin, celebrating him and about how he supposedly single handedly, rescued, the Argentinian economy in a matter of months. This is based on the fact that the inflation rate has decreased and Argentina has registered a budget surplus two months in a row. So to Sky News, this represents an economic miracle that completely vindicates Miele's chainsaw approach to government. Now just to clarify, Miele is a neoliberal sock puppet of Washington. He has both the brashness and the stupidity, and the sort of dictatorial hubris that America adores in their clients.

I mean, he's the he he he's the International Monetary Fund's dream president. He's slashing government spending, slashing public programs, firing public sector workers by the tens of thousands, eliminating entire departments from the government such as the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Ministry of Labor, employment and social security and so on. So he's going on a on a on a deregulation, privatization and market liberalization killing spree. Imposing rabid austerity measures on Argentina in a brazen demonstration of what Naomi Klein referred to as the shock doctrine. Basically reviving Chicago school neoliberalism in Argentina with all the tact and subtlety of a sledgehammer.

I mean nearly 60% of the population is in poverty and millet's gleefully kneecapping the poor for the sake of Argentina's lenders and foreign investors and western multinationals. And of course Sky News is applauding this as a triumph of good economic policy, because good economic policy, for them, means a policy that provides greater and greater returns and opportunities for the extremely wealthy. And as with every politician who imposes severe austerity measures, the poor and the suffering are asked to believe that their suffering won't be in vain. And if if they can just be good citizens and endure the hardship being caused by the government, then there will be some beautiful blossoming of the economy when the season of pillage ends. But of course, this is a season that never ends, and the policies of neoliberalism guarantee that the season of pillage never ends.

Now we all know that The United States takes the the entire Western Hemisphere very personally. Their their concept of manifest destiny officially extended to the West Coast Of America, but in spirit it extends all the way south to the shores of Brazil. They have a long and disgraceful history in Latin America and in South America. Now the shock doctrine is a doctrine that involves implementing economic shock therapy, transferring wealth and power from the people to global corporations. Naomi Klein argued that the that the this approach relies on creating and capitalizing shocks to advance neoliberal economic policies that benefit the elites at the expense of the majority.

The crisis being capitalized upon in Argentina however was not a natural disaster. It wasn't a terrorist attack or anything like that. It was a crisis that was created in Argentina already by neoliberal policies like cutting subsidies and devaluing the currency and so on. Thereby creating over 200% inflation and driving the population into desperate poverty. I mean, I I just said 60% is is in poverty.

Well, just three years ago, it was only 10%. Now it's 60%. So this is the crisis that was created by neoliberalism and the the the remedy that they are prescribing to solve this crisis or to heal this crisis is more of the measures and an intensification of the measures that caused the crisis in the first place. This isn't unfamiliar by the way in South America, in Latin America. It's absolutely standard and has been for decades.

Typically, leftist leaders will come to power in Latin America and they'll struggle for economic sovereignty and political independence. Independence against colonial powers, independence against western imperialism, western colonialism. And then predictably, America will have them overthrown or they will engineer some way to get them out of power to be replaced by American backed stooges who will then kick start the whole process of neo liberal subjugation all over again. That's typically been America's relationship with Latin America. But with the shift of the global economy to the East, I think that America is even more concerned, they're more concerned than ever to consolidate their control over their hemisphere, the hemisphere that they're in.

And because to a certain extent, they probably feel that they're losing control, or they could potentially lose control. Which is why I think that we've seen a remarkable campaign across all of Latin America. A campaign of destabilization and interference that that aims to, you know, shape the political outcomes and to promote any liberal economic policies in the region and to establish American hegemony. I'll just give you a few examples, recent examples in the last twenty years or so. In 2,002, Venezuela experienced a brief US backed right wing coup against socialist president Hugo Chavez, which was then swiftly overturned by the Venezuelan people themselves.

In Honduras, they witnessed a successful US backed right wing military coup in 2009 against the left wing president Manuel Zaleya. In Ecuador, they had a there there was an unsuccessful violent right wing coup attempt in 2010 against president Rafael Correa. Paraguay saw a successful US backed right wing parliamentary coup in 2012 against president Fernando Lugo. Brazil underwent a successful US back right wing parliamentary coup in 2016 against president Dilma Rousseff. Venezuela again faced an unsuccessful right wing coup attempt in 2014 against president Nicolas Maduro.

Bolivia experienced a temporarily successful violent right wing, US backed coup in, 2019 against, Evo Morales. And then in, just two years ago in 2022, Peru, had a US backed right wing coup against president Pedro Castillo. And Colombia right now is currently facing the threat of right wing sort of soft coup attempt against their their left wing president Gustavo Pedro. Now as you will notice, The United States has more than one technique for pursuing regime change, either by military coup or by parliamentary coup or by just interfering with elections through funding candidates favorable to them and providing technical assistance and so on through the National Endowment for Democracy or directly, by the CIA. Now I'm bringing all of this up because, very often, just as Latin America was the original laboratory for the neo liberal shock doctrine.

It's also been a laboratory for techniques of regime change and domination. And what they have done, and what they are doing in Latin America, we have seen them doing, and they are doing in other places, like the, the the original, coup in Ukraine that brought that led to Zelenskyy coming to power, and the, backing of pro western and anti, Russian regime in Moldova. Then of course, there was the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016. And in my opinion, they interfered they tried to interfere in the elections in Turkey just last year. Not to mention the the the coup against Emir Khan in Pakistan.

So my point is, we are very likely to see The US using these techniques against the BRICS nations, and against the Muslim nations that defy western hegemony. Now which techniques they will use will depend on what form of government and what what the conditions are in that society, the society that they're targeting. If a violent coup is viable, then they'll do that. If a parliamentary coup is viable, then that's what they'll do. And if it's a if it's a democratic system, then they'll probably just interfere with the elections.

In my opinion, one obvious candidate for interference is gonna be South Africa, where the Democratic alliance, so called Democratic alliance is seeking to unseat the ANC government. And the Democratic alliance is supported by The United States. They're pro Zionist, pro Israel, anti Brix, and they wanna reverse all of the advances that South Africa has made as an independent political and economic and moral actor on the on the on the world stage. So I think that South Africa is currently being targeted for something like a soft coup and interference in their elections and in their campaigning by means of The United States through the National Endowment for Democracy and maybe from through other organs of state power and private sector power to funnel money into the democratic alliance and build them up and try to use them to unseat the ANC, which went through their own sort of neo liberal phase when they first came to power after the end of apartheid. They went through their own sort of neo liberal phase, but they are returning more now to their roots, which is more concerned with the actual social welfare, and not so much with the rampant neo liberal capitalist approach, corporate approach to the economy.

Not to mention the fact obviously with with the case against the ICJ, South Africa is they have a a a very large target on their backs. And I think that because it is a democratic system, The US is most likely going to try to pursue regime change in South Africa by interfering with the elections. If they if they can do it through simply out funding the ANC by pouring funding and donations and contributions and providing technical assistance to the Democratic Alliance, then they'll do it that way. If they can't if they can't guarantee that they can do it that way, then they'll probably try to tamper with the election itself. So, there need to be think there's there's an election coming up, in a couple of months, shortly after Ramadan, I believe.

So I think it's in May. So I think the officials, the ANC officials and anyone in South Africa who cares about their their government and cares about having a representative government, and is proud of the positions and the stances that South Africa has taken, you need to definitely turn out to vote, and you need to definitely try to ensure that the elections are monitored by independent monitors to ensure that there's no funny business being undertaken by The United States and its agents. Now I have said before that I believe that the owners and controllers of global financialized capital are generally aligning themselves with the BRICS nations with the global South. So you might think that this kind of a threat should no longer exist. But as I have also said, the OC GFC are not monolithic.

It's comprised of coalitions of competing interests. So that threat is very much alive, and as I said, we're seeing it. We're seeing it already. We're seeing that play out, that that competition play out in countries all around the world, including in Argentina. Now, in my opinion, one very simple sort of precaution that every country in the global South should take is to enact measures to ban foreign funding for any domestic political parties, as well as for NGOs, or at least to require any political party and any NGO that is receiving foreign funding to be listed and to be audited.

In my view, foreign funding for political parties and for, NGOs should be monitored and scrutinized as much, as suspected terrorist financing. And this is also another reason why I think and I believe and I've said that now more than ever, Muslims should avoid any hyperbolic and inflammatory condemnation of our rulers, seeking to incite hatred and opposition amongst the for our country's leaders, because this absolutely plays into the hands of the West. Now the next story relates to the Muslim part of the world, to our part of the world, specifically to Indonesia. It's also a video, this time from from RT, sort of the polar opposite of Sky News. So I'll play the video now.

You can watch it. It's only about two minutes or so.

Indonesia's grip on the global nickel industry remains ironclad. As the largest producer of the silvery white lustrous metal, Jakarta is causing panic in the West as it controls what they need.

It has really made a big part of the old traditional players structurally noncompetitive for the future. This part of the industry will either disappear or be subsidized by governments. The uncompetitive mines elsewhere will close. I'm not sure there will be so many governments deciding to subsidize big production with a lot of money just to compete with Indonesia production.

Boris went on to lament the fact that Indonesia might account for more than three quarters of the world's supply of the purest nickel ore within five years, And she is not the only one shaking from Jakarta's industrial rumble, understanding the line for the marketplace is long with those ready to write their checks to Indonesia, which is the dominant player today.

There's a serious structural challenge as a result of Indonesian nickel that is certainly putting cost pressure on most of the other ferronickel businesses that exist in the world today.

So just how large is Indonesia's nickel industry? In 2023, Indonesia produced about 40% of the world's supply. Its conquering policy has even forced some of the other nickel companies around the world to either cut production or shatter unprofitable mines. It is not also bright though as global nickel industry has now found itself under stress as a result of an oversupply of the industrial metal. But worry not according to Indonesian officials.

This concept has to be well understood by all these nickel producers elsewhere. The purpose for the government is to find an equilibrium so that nickel demand, especially for electric vehicles, is well supplied.

There are also concerns now whether Indonesian nickel will lose its popularity in the global markets. Nickel is vital to the production of electric car batteries and is used as a main component to make stainless steel. So the Indonesian government is firm that nickel will stay strong.

Is it

true that nickel will be left out? This is a lie that the industry is leaving nickel. Why do I say this? Because LFP is only used by Tesla on its standard models. Nickel powered cars are better for longer distance travel.

Some Tesla cars are still using nickel based batteries.

Indonesia's whooping nickel oriented actions have helped to boost its economic tremendously over the last few years. And despite a few challenges along the way, invasion domination of the global market is not going anywhere. Rebecca Navitapulu reporting from Jakarta for RT.

Now I have actually talked about this policy in the past. This, this policy of Indonesia before. They banned the, the export of raw nickel, insisting that refining and processing should only be done domestically, either by local companies or by foreign companies that are investing in Indonesia and hiring local workers. Thereby increasing Indonesia's share of the value chain and their their own industrial expertise. And now we're seeing the impact of that policy.

The economy has benefited tremendously. It's a it's very impressive just as the story mentioned. And the West is now caught between a rock and a hard place. You know, they might be slowly realizing that the push for so called sustainable energy, green energy, electric cars and so on. This is turning out to be a massive boost for the global South because all of the resources that are needed for those initiatives are buried in their soil.

And the political mood in the world right now is not one in which people in the global South feel very much like just handing over their resources to the West anymore. And they have options now. They have options now that they never had before. In my opinion, Indonesia's really courageous decision to halt nickel ore exports and to prioritize value added processing is really a revolutionary step towards economic liberation and self determination. By focusing on building downstream industries and attracting investment in smelters for example.

Indonesia is reclaiming its economic sovereignty, and asserting its rightful role as the owner and controller of their own resources. I mean, maximizing the potential of their own nickel resources embodies a spirit of defiance against economic subjugation, against exploitation, colonial exploitation. This very wise approach to their industrial growth and value creation for their economy serves as a clarion call or a can for all the oppressed peoples that are striving for economic emancipation and empowerment all around the global South. It's a good model. You know, Indonesia's sort of journey to global prominence in the nickel industry should give confidence to all the marginalized nations, you know, to rise up and break free from the imposed fabricated dependency on the West.

I mean, imagine being dependent upon those who are dependent upon you, and who are dependent upon your resources. Indonesia is seizing this moment to reclaim their economic dignity. And this just makes sense. Our resources, our industry, Our industry, our companies. Our companies, our workers, our professionals, our experts, and our profits.

Well, you know the West used to come to a land and make us think that our resources were a curse that you came to cure us of. You know, like our resources were a sickness that you came to heal. But they had us digging up our own buried treasure and then handing it over to them in exchange for a measly wage, and we thank you for giving us a job, but not anymore. Okay. Now the last story sort of goes back to the Mille story about neoliberalism.

The the sort of neoliberal model because this has to do with Ukraine, and what The US has just said, regarding all of the financial aid that they've been giving them over the past two years. This is very interesting. So American senator Lindsey Graham has said that Ukraine is gonna have to repay all that money. He said that given America's quite substantial external debt, which exceeds $34,000,000,000,000, America's not in the it's not feasible for them to just forgive those debts. It's not for it's not feasible for The United States to forgive debts even of its allies like the Ukraine.

He's proposing that repayment from Ukraine should come in the form of land and resources, as well as deductions from Ukrainian salaries and from pensions. Look at that. Isn't that amazing? Pay us back with the land that you died defending. Pay us back with the resources that you fought to preserve for yourselves.

You know, they thought that The US was sending them all that money to protect and defend their sovereignty, but actually they were just purchasing their sovereignty the whole time. See, they loaned you all that money, so that you could spend it on an unwinnable war that everyone knew was unwinnable just to destroy your country and devastate your economy and devastate your industry precisely to ensure that you would never be able to pay back that money and you would have to then pay them back by handing over your land and resources and even your retirement pension funds just to pay back those debts. And you know Larry Fink, Black Rock has already been over there. Has already been over to Ukraine. And they're already making lists of what they're gonna take.

And you wonder why I said that there's a plan for for for the war to be expanded. Why did they why they hope that the Ukraine War will spill over. It's a scorched earth version of neoliberalism, literally. And they want it to spread across the whole region. You know, France and Germany are talking about the possibility of war with Russia, going to war with Russia.

Meanwhile, industrial production in the, Eurozone is at its lowest level since the pandemic. Production of capital goods fell by 14% in one month. Capital goods means the the goods that you use for industrial production. It's like the what's essential for increasing long term productive capacity, creating jobs and boosting economic development. Things like machinery, tools, vehicles, even manufacturing plants themselves.

These are all capital goods. And all of that's down. It fell by 14% like I said in one month, but they wanna go to war. They wanna try and jump start some sort of a military industrial complex system for themselves while they can barely even keep their own factories running. I'm telling you, the whole continent, the whole continent of Europe is is is is trying to torch themselves.

They're gonna torch themselves. Alright. I'll throw in one last story because it's it's an I told you so moment once again for this channel. You probably saw Chuck Schumer talking about how Israel needs regime change, that Netanyahu basically has to go, and they need an election as soon as possible to get somebody else. Well, I've been saying this for months.

I've been saying for months now that The US wanted to get rid of Netanyahu, and that the OCGFC also wanna get rid of Netanyahu. And that Netanyahu is just bargaining for immunity from prosecution at this point. That's all he's doing. Mark my words, if he doesn't cut a deal for immunity from prosecution, you're gonna see in a few years, Netanyahu rolled into The Hague on a wheelchair with an oxygen tank next to him, pleading that he is too sick to stand trial, because that's what they always do. And this is being made possible by the Brix nation.

And whether you like it or not, it's being made possible by the Arab rulers. And most importantly, it's being made possible by the global popular support for Palestine, and the continued protests, boycotts, and activism. You know, did you see how ADNOC this is okay. I'll add just another little bit of a story. ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi oil and gas company, they're suspending they had been planning to enter into the Israeli gas market, and they're suspending that now.

And The UAE is also gonna halt the construction of that of that land bridge that everyone was talking about. Everyone was saying that it was already built and operational, which was always Zionist propaganda. It hasn't been built yet, so it's not operational yet. That's another I told you so for this channel because everyone was spreading this Zionist lies and propaganda that this land bridge was active, but it hasn't even been built yet. Now, The UAE is saying that they're gonna halt that, they're gonna suspend that, they're not even gonna do it.

You you you can't deprive someone of something that you, have never offered them. You can't take something away from someone that you never gave. That's how leverage is. That's that's what leverage is, and that's how leverage works. So, you may be against normalization, but if there hadn't been normalization, if there hadn't been some degree of a relationship and a mutual exchange, then you can't suspend anything.

There's nothing to suspend. It's like someone I've said this before, it's like someone who never goes to McDonald's saying that they're gonna boycott McDonald's. It has no impact. You have to have a relationship in order to suspend a relationship. And being able to suspend the relationship gives you leverage.

You have no leverage if you have no relationship. This is very very one zero one geopolitics. I'll just give you a few more little sort of news bites. The the the Bank of Israel has said that the that the war in Gaza the gross effects of the war in Gaza on the Israeli economy is gonna cost them about $53,000,000,000, dollars not shekels. The the construction industry, accounts for about 14% of Israel's GDP, has been severely affected by the war.

Construction projects have been paused. They've been suspended. The industry is operating at a significantly reduced capacity, not only because of IDF mobilization and reserve mobilization of reservists, but also because they're not letting Palestinian workers in. And Palestinian workers are the ones who did most of the work in the construction industry in Israel. The number of tourists visiting Israel has dropped from above 300,000 per month to around 39,000 per month.

That's a that's that's a that's a a huge drop off. You know, airlines are suspending flights, tourists are cancelling plans. The tourism sector in Israel is is is almost non existent at this point. Half a million Israelis have left the country. They emigrated from the country.

Not they didn't go on holiday. They moved. They up stakes and have moved. That's a permanent departure. That's over five that's that's over 5% of the Jewish population in Israel.

And why do you think they left? I'll give you a hint. It wasn't because they were afraid of Hamas. It's money. They left because of money.

They left because of economic security. Now, okay, let me let me now connect this to another story. I didn't plan on making this this long, but this this is relevant to the topic we're talking I'm I'm talking about now. Egypt has been economically destroyed by the IMF as we know, by the same neo liberal policies, the IMF policies that Milet is doing in Argentina. It's it's it's been happening in Egypt for about what, eight years now?

So by now, 50% of government spending in Egypt goes just to pay on the interest on debts. Their interest on debts, 50% of their spending. Okay. So now Egypt is doing, to one extent or another, they're doing what Ukraine is gonna have to do in the future. They're gonna sell everything, privatize everything, sell the land, and sell the assets.

Anything that's owned by the state, everything is gonna have to go. And the GCC and The UAE and Saudi Arabia are buying. I've talked about this before. The GCC has watched what the IMF does. They watched how they operate.

They watched how they batter an economy so that Western investors and multinationals can take over. And they said, well, what's an opportunity if it's an opportunity for them, then it's an opportunity for us. So now, in certain cases, instead of the West taking over, instead of western companies taking over, western multinationals, and western investors taking over, the GCC is taking over. They're taking over either instead of or alongside other foreign or western modus and controllers of global financialized capital. They might even do that in Ukraine.

Who knows? But my point is they could also do that with Israel. The Israeli economy is getting hammered, and they're doing it to themselves. And this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity for economic conquest.

And I think that's what they're gonna do. I think that's what the GCC countries are gonna do. Now I know everyone gets mad when you hear the word normalization because you have a certain concept of what that means. But when you hear that word, just auto correct it in your mind to the term economic conquest because that's what it actually is. I mean tourism dropped from 300,000 to 40,000.

Israeli companies are getting boycotted. The Houthis aren't letting ships pass to Israel. This is an economic disaster. It's an economic nightmare. And this nightmare, this disaster is creating huge gaps in Israel's economic armor.

And it's creating weakness, and it's creating vulnerability. And you can see by the half million Israelis who have already left the country in in in five months, what these people care about. It isn't Zionism. It isn't even Israel. They care about money like most people.

I'm telling you, if you let ideological blinders stop you from seeing the opportunities for Muslim economic takeover, Muslim economic conquest conquest that are being created right now, and you still think that you get to criticize and give political advice about Palestine. I think you're you're you're trying to swim in waters that are way too deep for you, and you need to go back to the to the to the kiddie pool. Because you can't make proper analysis when you're too ideological, you know. You're not able to actually see reality for how it actually is and how things actually are are are working because you have a certain paradigm, you have a certain concept in your mind, and therefore you interpret everything in such a way to make it conform with what you already think. And that prevents you from seeing reality as it actually is, which can make you miss opportunities.

And it can make you hate something that's good for you, and it can make you like something that's bad for you. So I think that if you're if you're not able to see and and understand what I'm talking about, then maybe again, like I said many times, and it's become a sort of almost a mantra on my channel. Maybe politics isn't for you, and that's fine. Not everyone has to be involved in politics. Not everyone has to talk about politics.

You don't have to have an opinion on everything. And you don't have to voice your opinion about things that you don't know about. That's totally fine, you know. You can just just stay out of it. Talk about the things that you know about.

I don't talk about physics. I don't make I don't I don't make videos on how to repair cars because I don't have a clue. Stick to your area. The things that you know about and talk about those things. Don't You don't have to have an opinion about everything.

But okay. Those are the stories for this week. I'm sorry it's very long. Inshallah, it's useful for you. And we'll be back again, inshallah, on Wednesday.